


Daughter Of Dogs

by Haberdasher



Category: Original Work
Genre: Animal Transformation, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Dogs, First Full Moon, Full Moon, Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, Moon, Trans, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Transformation, Were-Creatures, painful transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 16:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21200324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: Rani, a trans girl from a family where all women bear the same curse, wonders if the curse will affect her as the time for it to begin draws near.





	Daughter Of Dogs

Every woman in Rani’s family bears the same curse, and has for generations: on the first full moon after their thirteenth birthday, they are magically transformed into a dog, only to turn human again on the next full moon after that, switching forms between dog and human a month at a time from that point onward.

The original cause of the curse is a keystone of family legend; the story goes that Rani’s great-great-grandmother hunted down and killed a witch who was tormenting nearby villages, the witch cursing her and all women of her bloodline with her dying breath, though the exact details of the encounter vary depending on who’s telling the story this time around.

It’s not a terribly pleasant curse--what curse is?--but the family’s banded together to help those afflicted with it, to lessen the burden caused by the transformations it causes. The family has various tricks and tips prepared for dealing with housemates who are only human half of the time, but the biggest thing is the ceremony held for girls who are about to transform for the first time. All relatives connected by the curse, no matter how distant, make a point of coming together to celebrate the girl who will confront the curse for the first time. It’s a giant party, a coming-of-age experience, turning the beginning of a curse into an excuse to unite far-flung family members and make the best of a tricky situation.

It’s been three weeks since Rani’s thirteenth birthday, and the full moon is due to rise tonight. Normally, the ceremony would be in full swing by now, she’d be surrounded by relatives both near and far, watching her cousins run around and play games as she wore a fancy dress made specially for the occasion.

There’s just one problem: Rani’s family doesn’t know she’s a girl.

They’d assumed she was a boy at birth, and so had she for some years, before she connected the dots and realized that regardless of her body, she wanted to be a girl, so she _was_ a girl. She’d talked with a few school friends about it, and they’d helped her figure it all out, even helped her pick out a new name for herself, but she’d never told any of her relatives about it, unsure what their reaction would be, whether they’d accept her as she truly was.

So there were no festivities tonight, no celebration, no fancy dresses, no huge family gathering waiting for the magic moment to arrive. Instead there was only Rani, Rani waiting in her room as the minutes and hours dragged on, staring out the window as she considered her situation.

She wasn’t sure what the family curse would think of her. She knew she was a girl, no matter what others might think, but would a curse that went several generations back agree with her, or would it overlook her because of her body--a body that she would gladly trade in for a more feminine one, curse and all?

Would she spend the night waiting for something that would never happen, the morning sun confirming that she would never be truly seen as a woman by those closest to her, or would her family--her immediate family, anyway, the ones that were by her side even without a big family gathering--find out about her true identity overnight, without her having a say in the matter?

Rani wasn’t sure which would be better, truth be told.

She watched the sky darken bit by bit as the sun finished setting, the change slow and almost imperceptible if you weren’t watching it with an eye as careful as Rani’s was that night. But it wasn’t the darkness she was waiting for, exactly, it was the moon rising to break up that darkness...

Finally, as the first stars began to twinkle in the night sky, Rani saw what she was waiting for: the light of the full moon rising above the horizon.

She half-thought that she was imagining her reaction at first. It started with just a queasiness in her stomach and a vague tingling across all of her body, both of which could easily be chalked up to nerves or her imagination.

Soon, though, it became clear that what was happening was more than a mere trick of her imagination.

Her vision, her hearing, all of her senses warped almost beyond recognition. Rani could feel her body being pushed and pulled in a million different directions, her limbs seemingly torn apart piece by piece and then sewn back together by someone who’d only learned to sew the week before. The pain was overwhelming, and every other injury she’d ever had (including the broken bones from that time she’d tried jumping off the roof with a blanket as a cape thinking that she’d be able to fly) paled in comparison. It was hard to focus, but as Rani struggled to put the pieces together, her mind kept floating back to the same thought--why did nobody ever mention how _agonizing_ this process was?

And then, just as quickly as it was begun, the pushing and pulling and tearing and sewing ceased, the pain receded, and everything was back to normal... well, almost normal, anyway.

Rani was still in her room, but the colors were off, and scents that she had barely noticed before were clear as day now, and the ground was closer to her now--no, _she_ was closer to the _ground_ now. The floor felt oddly soft, too; Rani looked down to see why and saw that she was standing on a pile of clothes, the same clothes that she had been wearing only moments earlier.

She saw more than just that in that quick glance, though, and Rani ran over to the full-length mirror in her room, stumbling over her own feet along the way.

In the reflection Rani saw a dog, one with ears a bit too big for her head and fluffy chestnut fur a few shades lighter than her skin was normally and a long bushy tail that, as she stared into the mirror, began to wag.

Things weren’t going to be smooth sailing from here on out, Rani knew. For one thing, she’d have to go through that same transformation, that same agonizing and overwhelming pain, during every full moon from now on. For another thing, having her family entering her room and finding her as a dog rather than a human was sure to be the start of an awkward and difficult conversation.

But just the same, Rani knew that in this, she had solid proof that despite certain quirks of her body, she was a real girl through and through.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, consider following me on tumblr at [haberdashing](https://haberdashing.tumblr.com/)!


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